k-on!

Who is that? Why do you do this Kyoto Animation?! I’ve circled the perpetrator, in red, in the above image. Given the track record KyoAni has with random scene participants, we’re most likely not going to see her again. Remember that one second in the first season of K-ON! when Yui passes by the Occult Club? A smoothly animated silhouette appears before a scene change and she’s nowhere to be found throughout both seasons. The two Occult Club members we do get to see don’t have the hair length of the shadowy figure that randomly appeared behind Yui.

This episode. This episode. I can’t handle a dere (でれ) Dekomori. Such is it that we return to our blessed previous status quo. Although it was interesting to see just how dedicated Dekomori is to the Mabinogion and Mori Summer. Is it boredom, or a coping mechanism? I’m personally leaning towards Dekomori suffering from plain boredom. It does pain me to see such vivid imaginations of chuunibyou sufferers manifest as animated scenes. We all know it looks silly (unless animated by KyoAni). But there’s also the time when you know it looks silly, and then do it anyway. That’s called growing up. Growing up also means taxes, and taxes aren’t fun. Unless you’re playing a city-building simulator, then tax away. How else are you going to fund that chemical reclamation plant?

Megumi Chihaya is awesome. She also bears an uncanny resemblance to what Yui Hirasawa of K-ON! may mature into. Just imagine Yui mellowing out a bit after college, growing her hair out while adding another pair of hair clips to manage her bangs. Not only that, Chihaya’s exhibits the ability to shamelessly cosplay in a public place such as a civil ward office. Mmmhmm, our Yui-chan is definitely an adult now. It’s also infinitely more plausible since Chihaya is voiced by none other than Toyosaki Aki herself.

So yeah. I’m definitely enjoying Servant x Service. When one starts living past that rosy high-school life and enters that gray area of adulthood, this show connects with you at a deeper level; unmistakably so if you actually work as a civil servant. But it’s not like you need to be working as one to enjoy the show. We watch these crazy, fantastical shows with settings and characters that rarely depict themselves as realistic as possible. If you want that, you’d be watching a regular TV channel [at non-anime hours] for that. Perhaps after years of watching fantasy and sci-fi anime, something down to earth starts looking more appealing, instead of boring.

What’s the latest Servant x Service episode about? I’m not telling. Particularly because I’ve never understood the reason for reading a episodic summary. I’m not about to do one either.

Let’s ignore that. The music of this show is spot on. It sounds like stuff in my current non-anime collection, with an eclectic mix of jazz-influenced instrumentation, in addition with the typical A-1 Pictures “working man” music stylings. Should have expected this, since Working!!‘s OST is the same goodness that we hear in Servant x Service. And the ED is damn pleasant to listen to. Almost sounds like it was performed by Round Table feat. Nino, who has nothing to do with this show. Go listen to them anyway. They’ll remind you of a lot of different anime. Like Aria the Animation. Or Chobits. Maybe even Gunbuster 2.

Why the hell are trumpets so perfect for sitcoms with office/job settings?

Also, Toyosaki’s voice is so sexy when she’s given a calmer, or deadpan, character. Hnng. It always lets me sleep at night. Interpret that as you will. (Oh yeah.)

A little late in running, due to me experimenting with things to try and make the sound less crumpled and obese sounding. It kind of worked, but I’ll let you see if it worked.

Most of the podcast seemed to be about being fabulous. In which case, the most fabulous anime this season are Milky Holmes, Togainu no Chi and Star Driver. A couple of announcement reactions as well, since Strike Witches and K-ON! are both getting movies, along with Maria+Holic getting a second season. More wonderful SHAFT productions for us to enjoy in the future, but we also can’t forget that Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru and Arakawa Under the Bridge S2 are already airing.

This seventh professional podcast is brought to you by amateurs, with exquisite amounts of unprofessionalness. We also can’t seem to refrain from saying things that make us sound stupid. We require failtrain my fellow crew. For new listeners to the podcast, we do our best to make it seem like we were recorded while we were naturally talking about anime all day like it’s the only thing we do. Maybe we’ll have a new listener or two thanks to Animeblogger.net, as it’s our first time being on an aggregator. Please rage carefully amongst the population.

This podcast was actually recorded at the same time as RAGEcast 4, so you’ll notice us talking about stuff that’s either old, or already happened.. meaning it’s old. Besides stating the obvious and doing so repeatedly, this is the fifth podcast!

This time we’re switching between various anime like Highschool of the Dead, random K-ON mentions, and remembering whatever we can about last season. The amount of failtrain still hasn’t gone down ever since we’ve started podcasting, so I guess there’s a little bit of entertainment in listening to us sound like idiots while we make mistakes. We changed the format a little bit: I introduce the entire list of probable topics right at the beginning of each podcast, so that within 2 minutes of listening, you’ll know if it’s worth listening to! Nice of us, ain’t it? As much as I’d love for everyone to listen to the whole thing, it’s no good if none of it concerns you.

I also can’t believe this is Taketatsu Ayana’s second role I’ve seen this season. Taketatsu is our loveable Azunyan from K-ON!. The other series she’s currently in is MM has Mio Isurugi. Even more still, my lovely Ritsu has shown up once again as Kyousuke’s female friend Manami. Very tempted to make a little graph of the seiyuu in Oreimo to show their past roles. It’s also very odd how close Taketatsu’s enunciation of some vowels sounding unusually close to the way Hirano Aya (Suzumiya Haruhi) does.

There’s plenty of stuff to talk about for future podcasts, since this season also seems to be garnering very strong reactions — which seem to already be polarized to the extremes. Is there really no room for middle ground?